October 24, 2003-- Heidelberg and Essen-based alphagraph team GmbH are stepping up the collaboration between the two companies that has been in place for the last three years. A new long-term agreement was signed on October 15, 2003. The aim of this move is to build up the development and sales activities for the Prinance/Winkaar32 management information system. This software forms a key component of the Heidelberg Prinect workflow and provides the customer with transparent processes, an overview of costs and competitive advantages. Because of the considerable international demand the two partners will each specialize in their core areas of expertise in the future. Alphagraph is responsible for the further development of the core software, while Heidelberg is in charge of software internationalization by matching it to the needs of the relevant market. Heidelberg also handles integration into Prinect, which supplies the digital information for the entire print media production work, and open JDF interfaces for linking up further workflow products. "We were surprised by the enthusiastic response from our international customers", explains Dr. Klaus Spiegel, Heidelberg's member of the board in charge of Sheetfed Offset. "The new collaboration with alphagraph enables us to invest our full energy in software internationalization and interface definition" he adds. Prinance is already an integral part of Heidelberg solutions in over fifteen countries, including the United Kingdom, the USA, Australia, South Africa, Netherlands and Chile. "We are convinced that pooling resources in this way with a globally successful partner such as Heidelberg will further expand the international marketing network for this industry software," states Norbert Hotze, CEO at alphagraph. The two companies will be unveiling a joint software version before drupa 2004 that will secure further competitive advantages for their respective customers.